Youth justice reform: a growing focus on early intervention and joined-up support

The government has signalled a new direction for youth justice and crime prevention, with a stronger emphasis on early intervention, joined-up services and greater local leadership.

Ministers from the Ministry of Justice, Department for Education and Home Office met with leaders from youth justice, policing, children's services and education in Manchester on 17 September to explore how services could work more effectively together to identify and support children at risk of becoming involved in crime. The discussions considered whether giving local and regional leaders greater freedom could enable services to join up more effectively, pool resources, reduce duplication and intervene earlier.

As part of this work, Kate Green has been appointed Expert Adviser on Youth Justice Devolution in England for an initial 18-month period. She will advise ministers on how strategic authorities could play a greater role in youth justice and crime prevention, including how services might work together more effectively and how accountability could be strengthened. The work forms part of the government's wider plans to shift greater power and accountability from Whitehall to local leaders.

_{Identifying children earlier}

A particularly important aspect of the announcement is the emphasis on identifying children who may be at risk before difficulties escalate. Ministers highlighted the need for better coordination between children's social care, education, youth justice, policing and wider services.

During their visit to Manchester, ministers also visited SHiFT, which works intensively with children and young people at high risk of entering custody or becoming entrenched in crime. Its approach brings together multi-disciplinary support around young people and places relationships at the centre of the work.

This comes alongside the expansion of Young Futures Hubs and Young Futures Panels, which are also intended to identify vulnerable young people earlier and connect them with appropriate support.

_{What does this mean for children's services?}

Although detailed proposals for youth justice devolution are still being developed, there are clear parallels with the direction of travel across children's services. Families First, for example, is placing greater emphasis on integrated Family Help, earlier support, stronger multi-agency working and building effective relationships around children and families. The emerging youth justice approach similarly emphasises earlier identification, multi-disciplinary working and coordinated support around a child. This raises some important questions for local areas.

How well connected are Family Help, education, youth services, community safety, policing and youth justice? Are children at risk of exploitation, violence or offending being identified early enough? And when several services are involved with a child or family, does that support feel coordinated – or are families still navigating different parts of the system separately?

The detail of the government's youth justice reforms is still to come. However, the direction is increasingly clear: prevention, relationships, earlier intervention and genuinely joined-up local services are becoming central themes across the wider children and families reform agenda.

For local partnerships, the challenge will be turning those principles into practice around individual children, young people and families.